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SYDNEY - Australian Rugby Union (ARU) chief Gary Flowers has promised to continue raiding National Rugby League (NRL) ranks despite two of rugby's three big league signings ending in tears.
Mat Rogers was yesterday released of the final year of his contract for personal reasons, while fellow league convert Wendell Sailor was this year suspended for cocaine use and banned for two seasons.
It leaves just Lote Tuqiri as the ARU's last remaining big-name recruit from the rival code, although the Waratahs wing, like Rogers, is mulling a return to league.
But Flowers refused to label the league raid a failure, instead warning the NRL that the ARU would continue to poach players if they were genuinely interested in the 15-man game.
This season Canberra captain Clinton Schifcofske, Sydney Rooster Ryan Cross and Wests Tiger Sam Harris all signed off on NRL careers to pursue the Wallabies dream.
"We will continue to look at rugby league players who are genuinely interested in playing our game on a case by case instance," Flowers said.
"I think it's important to emphasise that this is our position and our position remains.
"At the moment we have 132 professionally contracted players in our game ... rugby league players have only made up less than five per cent of our contracted players in recent years.
"We have over 196,000 participants in rugby and this is where our future Wallabies and Waratahs will come from.
"The loss of any great player (Rogers) is always a blow, but there's plenty of players coming through that want to wear the green and gold.
"There's no shortage, in our view, of players that want to play our game. We have junior programs and in recent times we've heard speculation a number of players from the other code are interested in playing rugby as well."
The ARU will meet several player managers from the rival code in coming weeks, including an appointment on Monday with the agent for Bulldogs and Kiwis sensation Sonny Bill Williams.
But while the ARU continues to eye league talent, Waratahs coach Ewen McKenzie is more concerned with keeping his own former league winger Tuqiri in Sydney.
Tuqiri is reportedly considering several options to make a league comeback in 2008, but McKenzie said his discussions with the 27-year-old were well advanced and the departure of Rogers would have no bearing on those negotiations.
"The Lote situation is independent ... totally different to Mat," he said.
"We deal with every negotiation and opportunity separately.
"People will try and put it together. We are already working on Lote and have been for some time."
The ARU has yet to make a formal offer to Tuqiri.
- AAP
